Collateral Damage
by Leni
Summary: ONE-shot. Fluff Warning. I was asked to include a bean bag chair into a KagInu story. Plus humour. This is the result. Enjoy!


_**DISCLAIMER:** I'm not even in the same hemisphere.  
__**DISTRIBUTION:** If you like it, you have it. Just let me know.  
**GENRE:** Romance Humour.  
**SUMMARY:** Ah, we all have an annoying piece of furniture at home. Or maybe two.  
**RATING:** PG-15, for playfulness and language.  
**Written **for sway3224_

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**COLLATERAL DAMAGE **

_by Leni_

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After four long years Inuyasha had finally learned - the hard, osuwari-populated way - not to needle Kagome when she was in a bad mood. That was why, that Saturday morning, he didn't comment on the deep frown he spotted as soon as the time-travelling light died out. He didn't mention the anger in her eyes either, even when it was directed at him. In fact, he prided himself that her unspoken hostility hadn't baited him into a fight, as it unerringly would have in years past. His smile was smug when Kagome wasn't looking, and the dark cloud that hung around her didn't change it. Nowadays Inuyasha considered himself a master in all things Kagome, and the girl would i always /i give up and tell him – or anyone willing to listen, really – the problem before they reached the village.

Unknown to him, Kagome was in no mood to be 'mastered' that day. A fact that threw his hard-earned conclusion out the metaphorical window.

Kagome didn't talk as Inuyasha helped her out of the well. She dusted herself off and dumped her bag on him without her traditional greeting. When he tried to engage her into a conversation, she looked at him from the corner of her eyes and lifted her nose in the air without deigning to answer him. She didn't comment either when he told her the news of Shikon fragments, or when he began to outline the route their group would take next. Kagome didn't laugh when he told her of Miroku's hopeless advances on Sango. She only walked stiffly at his side, not reacting except for to answer the villagers' greetings.

They arrived to Kaede's hut and Inuyasha still had no clue about Kagome's behaviour. He deposited the yellow bag on the floor and turned to look at her. Nothing. He frowned, almost tempted to cause a scene worthy of their early meetings if that would make Kagome answer. As things were, he had no way to gauge her mood. If at least she would say a word....

And then she did.

"Osuwari!"

The surprise was so great that he didn't even have time to prepare his body before the fall. The rosary pulled him down without mercy, and Inuyasha barely could close his eyes before his body slammed against the floor. He unglued his face from the wood with a pained scowl, still not believing what had occurred. He braced an arm against the floor, pushing himself up against the spell's force. His head shook against the slight dizziness, and Inuyasha tried to remember a reason that had made Kagome return to that annoying habit. Nothing came to mind. He looked in disbelief at the girl standing before him. He'd done nothing! Now, fully recovered and angry himself, he pushed himself up and stalked towards her. "What the fuck was that for?" he screamed into her face when he was close. Kagome looked anything but repentant. She locked his gaze with hers. Inuyasha almost shrunk back at the sheer _murder_ in her eyes. "Kagome?"

Kagome didn't answer for a long while. Finally she sighed and lowered herself to sit on the floor. She patted the wooden surface, signalling him to join her. Inuyasha remained standing. "Kagome..." he pressed, a hint of warning colouring his voice.

She sighed again. "I don't like lying to my mother," she finally whispered.

Huh? Inuyasha was at a loss and didn't bother to hide it. "Huh?"

"My mother. I don't like lying to her," she repeated, then crossed her arms around her knees, a position Inuyasha had learned early in their relationship meant that Kagome was conflicted about something. She raised her head to look at him. "Mama asked about the bean bag chair."

One eyebrow shot up in puzzlement. No, still not connecting the dots. "The _what_?"

"The bean b---." Kagome rolled her eyes at herself, realising he wouldn't recognise the term. "Remember last time you were home? Remember what we did? Or, better yet, what you did? That green, _helpless _thing _you_ tore into pieces." By the end of the sentence her eyes were glowering again.

Oh. _That._ Now he remembered. Kagome's mother couldn't have really liked it, could she? Inuyasha suddenly had visions of Mama Higurashi hunting him down with a skillet in one hand and a pan in the other. He gulped. "What ---" He cleared his throat. "What did you tell her?"

She mumbled her answer. "That you attacked it without any known reason."

He dropped his jaw at the blatant lie. "Oy!"

Kagome glanced up at him, all trace of conflict gone from her expression and swiftly replaced by something on the dangerous side between angry and mischievous. "What? Would you have me tell Mama what actually _did_ happen?"

Inuyasha's cheeks immediately began to burn, shaking his head before Kagome had even finished her question.

He remembered how Souta had had a big 'game' last Thursday, how the younger boy had asked everyone in the household to go to his school to see him. When Souta had noticed him – Inuyasha had crossed through the well to try to bring Kagome back to his time earlier -, he'd grown even more insistent.

Inuyasha had been curious about that game-thing; except for his girlfriend, Souta wasn't that enthusiastic about much. Inuyasha had even been toying with the idea of grabbing that hateful cap and going willingly with the boy. But Kagome had shaken her head, a glint in her eyes he'd learned to recognise, and claimed that they had an important assignment in the past. When that glint had translated into a trailing finger down his back as she went past him, Inuyasha could do nothing but nod in complete agreement.

He remembered waving the child and two adults goodbye as they went down the shrine steps. He remembered that he turned around when they finally disappeared from his sight, and discovered Kagome leaning against the door. He clearly remembered that playful glint turning into a seductive fire, her steps as she walked towards him had been infused with determination. From day one Inuyasha had been unable to deny anything to a determined Kagome, and he definitely wouldn't when he wasn't interested in denial at all.

He remembered pushing her past the door, past the entrance hall, past the TV room and into the living room. He remembered coming up for air and looking down into Kagome's dreamy expression. His thoughts hadn't been coherent then, just a swirling mass of 'want's and 'now's. Before he'd fully considered it Inuyasha was guiding that willing body onto the first piece of furniture he'd found. He remembered being briefly amused at the contrast of Kagome's dark hair against a green background that wasn't natural grass. He also remembered how he'd dismissed that thought immediately when she pulled him down to kiss her again.

Inuyasha remembered how he really, _really_, had not wanted to move past that soft surface, much less waste time on the long trek up the stairs to Kagome's bedroom. He had decided then and there to stay, and had tried his best to make Kagome come to the same conclusion. Not that she had objected in any form to impromptu plan. In fact, she had seemed to agree wholeheartedly with him.

He remembered that at one point he'd stopped thinking altogether. His only wish became to enjoy her completely. He'd only wanted to feel her. Only wanted to _cherish_ her. But there had been an obstacle. A supporting surface that didn't support them. It moved, almost gelatinously. Annoyance was there. Impatience. Anger. Inuyasha had shot his hands into the _thing_ in order to quiet it.

Instead he'd plunged through it, Kagome's surprised shriek accompanying the fall. He'd instinctively twisted them around to protect her, but nothing could have been done for _it_. _It_ was left as a thick green layer of plastic between them and the floor. Kagome had looked down at him in surprise, then smiled at their unexpected post-fall position and, with a careless shrug, taken advantage of it.

Two days later she wasn't shrugging it off anymore, her trademark Glare of Death firm in place. Well, fuck that. Inuyasha glowered back. "You didn't have one damn problem with it on Thursday," he snapped.

"Because I didn't feel guilty then!"

He crossed his arms over his chest, trying not to tap his foot against the floor. In four years he'd learned that Kagome realised her mistakes more quickly when left to stew alone in them. Just as predicted, not two minutes later she took one of his hands in hers and tightened her hold on it. "I'm sorry? For sitting you, I mean."

Inuyasha huffed, if only for appearance's sake, and nodded. "Come here, you crazy woman." He rolled his eyes for emphasis.

Kagome didn't need to be told twice, she scooted down the floor until she was sitting against him; their hands still linked between them. "You know?" she whispered after some seconds of silence. "There is this table in the hall I've never liked..."

Inuyasha shook his head. "You _are_ crazy," he chuckled before tipping her head up and pressing his lips to hers demandingly, stopping any protests.

Kagome shut up instantly.

ButInuyasha remembered thetable she was talking about. A short-legged one, standing right in the middle of the room. He was always bumping into it, his shin permanently bruised in the same spot.Hmm, he had never liked that table either.

If Kagome was serious.... Yeah, that would be fun.

He smirked into the kiss.

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**The End**

19/11/04

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